The world’s 50 most innovative companies -2014

For nine years in a row, Apple has been the most innovative company on the planet.

That designation comes care of Boston Consulting Group, the elite consultancy.

Since last year's list, Google climbed over Samsung to take the second spot, sliding the South Korean manufacturer into third.

Three companies vaulted into the top 50: The Japanese conglomerate Hitachi landed at No. 37, Marc Benioff's SalesForce.com landed at No. 40, and the Chinese phone maker Xiaomi made it all the way to No. 35.

Automobiles saw the biggest drop-off of any industry. A full 14 made the 2013 list, and that number fell to just nine this year.

Every year since 2005, the firm has surveyed more than 1,500 senior global executives for a snapshot of the most innovative companies in the world.

Each executive is asked to rate the companies in their industry by how innovative they are, and those results are then weighted to reflect three-year shareholder growth, revenue growth, and margin growth.

Here are this year's 50 most innovative companies:

source :http://forumblog.org/2014/10/worlds-50-most-innovative-companies/?utm_content=buffer66290&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

A solar cell that stores its own power: World's first 'solar battery' runs on light and air

Researchers at the Ohio State University have invented a solar battery

 Is it a solar cell? Or a rechargeable battery? Actually, the patent-pending device invented at The Ohio State University is both: the world's first solar battery.

In the October 3, 2014 issue of the journal Nature Communications, the researchers report that they've succeeded in combining a battery and a solar cell into one hybrid device.

Key to the innovation is a mesh solar panel, which allows air to enter the battery, and a special process for transferring electrons between the solar panel and the battery electrode. Inside the device, light and oxygen enable different parts of the chemical reactions that charge the battery.

The university will license the solar battery to industry, where Yiying Wu, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Ohio State, says it will help tame the costs of renewable energy.

"The state of the art is to use a solar panel to capture the light, and then use a cheap battery to store the energy," Wu said. "We've integrated both functions into one device. Any time you can do that, you reduce cost."

He and his students believe that their device brings down costs by 25 percent.

Tech Buzz:Scientists create 'invisibility' and Tetris the Movie

Scientists create 'invisibility' and Tetris the Movie The best of the week's technology - including how scientists at the University of Rochester are using a series of lenses to create a form of invisibility and plans to turn the game Tetris into a film source: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29444923